Half the reason I turned into a writer is you didn't have to show up anywhere. You could work naked.

Life can be lived as a temporary arrangement. Life is a temporary arrangement! But the longer you go without changing, the more obscure the likelihood you ever will. After enough time passes, the idea of another way of life grows even more misty.

At 17, all I wanted was to be a famous junky. Like all my heroes.

If you're here for four more years or four more weeks, you're here right now. I think when you're somewhere, you ought to be there. It's not about how long you stay in a place, it's about what you do while you're there, and when you go, is that place any better for your having been there?

Nothing ever turns me on so much in a woman as unhappiness.

It's not like I was an alkie or anything. Alcohol is for cleaning needles

There was a weird intimacy, sitting in a car together. Couples sat in cars. Cops and their partners. Strangers became unstrange, sharing a windshield view of the world.